1. Field:
The invention is in the field of slicing apparatus for the continuous slicing of material such as raw or cooked meat and particularly such apparatus which incorporates a rotary slicing blade, and in methods of producing cooked sliced meat products.
2. State of the Art:
There are currently many types of rotary slicing apparatus in use for slicing raw or cooked meat products. The normal slicer has a round blade which rotates and is moved, while rotating, through the material to be sliced. The material to be sliced is mechanically advanced after each pass of the blade through it, the amount of advance determining the thickness of each slice. With such slicers, the material to be sliced must be in the form of a substantially uniform roll or slab so that it can be held by the feed mechanism and advanced the preset amount with respect to the blade after each pass of the blade. Further, with meat, the meat has to be substantially solid so has to be either cooked, frozen, or otherwise processed such as bacon in order to be successfully thinly sliced.
Several machines have been shown in the patent literature which use an arcuate or spiral blade extending from a rotating shaft to cut product as it is positioned with respect to the blade. U.S. Pat. No. 3,468,356 discloses such a multi-edged rotary blade for cutting products such as bacon which are fed as individual slabs into position under the blade so as the blade rotates, it moves through and slices the slab. U.S. Pat. No. 3,727,504, shows a rotary blade for cutting products such as steaks and chops having a blade which rotates and cuts through a piece of meat to be cut which is incrementally moved into position after each pass of the blade. A bacon slicing machine having a single edged rotary blade for slicing individual slabs of bacon which are incrementaly moved and positioned in the path of travel of the blade has been commercially available for a number of years from the Albright-Nell Co. of Louisville, Kentucky.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,973,526 shows a rotary spiral blade with a lead or pitch equal to slice thickness so that the blade slices a loaf to be cut as it moves by the blade. U.S. Pat. No. 2,742,937 shows rotary blades used to cut and chop meat as it passes through the blades and the meat is then extruded from the blade chamber as a finely chopped meat product.
There remains a need for a slicing apparatus that will accurately slice fresh raw meat as well as cooked, frozen or processed meat regardless of the shape, size, or rigidity of the piece to be sliced, into slices as thin as one thirty-second inch and to do so at high production rates.